The World - News from Nov. 15, 1988

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev summoned top Communist Party and government officials to the provincial town of Orel, 230 miles south of Moscow, and told them his reforms will fail unless consumers get better food supplies. The meeting underlined the importance of the issue as well as the success of the Orel area in improving its farm output. “We don’t need just words on this theme, there have been a lot of words spoken already,” Gorbachev said in remarks carried by the Tass news agency. “Now it is clear to us that we cannot move forward successfully, not having decided this problem.”